Fat, Forty and faster! It could be you.

WARNING: Unless you are on the whale ship Nisshin Maru at present, some images may be offensive.

Stuck with that same old PB?  

Tried everything to beat it?

Even swimming endless laps with the oh-so-charismatic John Capon?  

Well, my friends, help is at hand. It's ancient, it's salty and it's just a long flight away.

You see, on a recent trip to Israel for a film shoot (insert ad-wanker joke here) I had a day off to go down to the Dead Sea. It's about a 2 hour drive from Tel Aviv and well worth it. Actually visiting Israel in general is well worth it as it is an amazing place, especially if you like girls carrying sub-machine guns. 

Like most of you I guess , going for a 'float' in the Dead Sea was something I really wanted to try while over there.  So I packed my Icebergs budgies ( which are handy in Israel as you really CAN tell what religion you are if you have them on)  and off I went.

Now here's the good part. You really do float WAY on top of the water. It's freaky. Naturally, being so salty there are plenty of signs saying don't put your head underwater etc etc  So when the lifeguard (what, do people float to death?) came over I expected the worse. But no, he was an Aussie and had noticed the Bergs' swimmers. We got talking and he asked me if I wanted to do a timed fifty? Hell, yes.

I got a dive off the rocks and swam to the 50 metre buoy in 27.2 seconds. At least 3 seconds faster than my best. 

No wetsuit, no fast-suit, no drugs, just a PB at 40 y.o in plain old water.

For the technicians out there, I can tell you it was exhausting. You can't get your kick down into the water at all and you waste a lot of energy trying to. Your arms arms, though , can slice through and really pull you along quick, and way above the water. 

So, there you have it. If you are in fading years you can still set a P.B no matter how old you are.

Good Luck.

P.S - By the time you read this Cyril will have booked a ticket.